Fatal as a Fallen Woman (33 page)

"Ben." Diana's hand on his arm brought him back to himself. He hadn't meant to launch into a lecture on the dangers of abortion, but it was a volatile issue with any physician.

"I didn't give him Oil of Tansy," Jane insisted. Her voice trembled and so did her hands. "I didn't. I wouldn't."

She was hiding something.  Maybe she didn't know where Alan Kent was, or how he'd gotten hold of poison, but neither was she telling them everything she knew.

"If you didn't get it for him, then he got it somewhere else. It isn't hard to come by."

"He killed Charlie Duncan?" Jane whispered.

"Who else would have had reason to?" Ben demanded.

Jane closed her eyes, as if she could not bear to contemplate the truth.

"What could Charlie have told us?" Diana wondered aloud. "We'll never know now, unless it's something Pearl knows too." Her voice rose to a squeak. "Oh, Ben! Do you think Alan Kent may try to kill Pearl?"

"I think we'd better warn her, just in case. And you're right, she's the only one left now who may have answers to our questions."

* * * *

Diana had not previously been inside Pearl's place of business, but she had little chance to compare the decor to the Elmira's before they were challenged by a young woman in a diaphanous gown.

"We're not open yet, sir. And we don't allow ladies to come in at any hour."

Another lightly clad female came out into the entry hall. "Why, it's the doctor who helped me," she said. "Never you mind, Priss. I'll take care of him."

"Hello, Gwen," Ben said.

Diana's hand tightened on his forearm. This
Gwen
person seemed entirely too pleased to see him, and he had never said exactly what it was he'd treated her for.

"I am Diana Spaulding, from the Elmira Hotel," she announced in lofty tones. "We need to speak to Pearl on a matter of some urgency."

Gwen stopped with her hand halfway to Ben's shoulder. With a shrug, she stepped back. "She's in her room. You know the way."

"Is she alone?" Ben asked.

"Except for the poodles. This is her day to do the accounts. She'll be at it till evening, if it goes the way it usually does. Counts every penny, she does." Gwen sent him a saucy grin as she disappeared into the back of the house.

"You go ahead, Jane," Diana said, tightening her grip on Ben's arm. "Tell Pearl about Charlie's death and our suspicions. I need a word with Ben before Pearl sees us together."

Neither of them spoke until Jane was out of sight. "Are you sure you trust Jane to explain?" Ben asked. "She's still got divided loyalties when it comes to Alan Kent."

"It's
because
I don't entirely trust her that I sent her on ahead. We need to talk to Pearl, but first we must take the underground passageway to Hop Alley. How do we get to this end of it?"

* * * *

The urgency in Diana's voice had convinced Ben to comply without hesitation, though he had plenty of questions. At the foot of the narrow flight of stairs to the basement, Pearl's porter was at his usual post. If he was surprised by the sight of a strange woman on a gentleman's arm, he hid it well. It was not part of his job to ask questions.

"I assume it costs as much going one way as the other?" Ben inquired, handing over a generous tip along with the fee.

"Yes sir, but you pay on the other side." He handed most of the money back.

"Ten dollars," Diana complained in a low mutter as they stepped into the tunnel. "Outrageous."

"Five," Ben corrected her.

"What? Do you mean to say Gun Wa was going to charge me twice the going rate just because he thought I was desperate enough to pay it?"

Ben wavered between amusement and appalled dismay as she described the circumstances of that "desperate" situation. This was the first time he'd heard of it. Diana made it sound as if she now believed she'd never been in any danger, but Ben wasn't so sure.

"I'm glad Ning looked out for you," he said when she fell silent. He promised himself he'd reward the boy the next time he saw him.

He was less sanguine about the elderly gentleman in Chinese robes they encountered at the far end of the tunnel, but he made no objection when Diana insisted he pay Gun Wa an additional fee to direct them to the laundry belonging to Ning's aunt.

Ning himself met them at the door. He looked pleased to see them. His aunt's expression conveyed intense relief.

"You take her now?" the aunt asked.

"We will definitely take her now," Diana replied.

"Take who?" Ben asked.

"My mother."

Diana followed Ning's aunt through a room crowded with washing tubs and hand-cranked wringers. The bulk of the business, Ben supposed, came from well-to-do housewives who put their laundry out to a laundress in order to placate the other servants. A maid might do the towels and dusters and her own clothes, but in the best households all the family's garments were professionally laundered.

"Well, Mother," Diana said as they entered the back room, "you've led us on a merry chase."

Ben was curious to get his first look at his future mother-in-law, but she was heavily veiled. He had to settle for a surface impression—a tall, stout woman holding herself stiff as the proverbial poker.

"You are the most annoying child," Elmira said. "Whyever did you go haring off to Torrence?"

"To find the truth. And I did. Alan Kent killed Father."

"What?" Astonishment had Elmira backing up a step.

"He's my late husband's brother. He found out, as I did, that Father had Evan killed. Motive enough for murder, don't you think?"

"Hmmm," Elmira said, unbending just a little. "I wouldn't have thought him the type."

"Anyone can kill, Mother."

"So, has he confessed? Am I free to leave here?"

"He hasn't been caught yet, and I doubt we can prove anything, but I think you've been in hiding long enough. Come away with us, Mother. We're going home."

She turned her attention to Ben. "With him?"

"This is Ben Northcote. Doctor Benjamin Northcote of Bangor, Maine. I'm going to marry him."

"You're welcome to live with us," Ben said. "My mother and brother already do."

"Why is she wincing at the thought?" Elmira asked, her veiled face turned in Diana's direction.

"I'm imagining your first encounter with Maggie Northcote," Diana said grimly.

"Well, I doubt I'll be making that trip. I have plans of my own."

"To stay here?" Diana challenged, waving a hand to encompass the laundry.

Elmira gave a bray of laughter that grated on Ben's nerves. "Ironic, isn't it? Here I am, once again surrounded by washtubs. Rub and boil and lots of elbow grease. Thought I'd left that all behind me." She made a tsking sound. "I wish I'd known years ago that there were so much easier ways for a woman to make money."

Without warning, the curtains that divided the back room from the rest of the laundry were swept aside. Jane rushed in, arms waving in agitation. "Hurry!" she cried. "Gun Wa called the police. They're on their way here to arrest Elmira."

"Damnation!" Ben swore.

"Follow me," Jane said. "I know a safe way out through the tenements."

Before Ben could object, Diana and Elmira had gone after her. Within moments they were deep inside a rabbit warren of buildings, out one door and through another until he'd lost all sense of direction.

Jane stopped when they reached a small, dark, upstairs room. "Stay here," she ordered. "I'll go ahead to scout for trouble."

Ben waited only a heartbeat before going after her. Jane should still be at Pearl's. She shouldn't have come in contact with Gun Wa, nor should she have known Diana had gone to the laundry.

Was Alan Kent lurking in the shadows up ahead? Ben entertained the nasty suspicion that he might be waiting for Jane to come and tell him she'd trapped Elmira, Diana, and Ben. If Alan
had
killed two people, he wouldn't quibble at three more.

Ben stopped and listened. He did not hear Jane's soft footfalls up ahead. He hesitated, wondering if he should go back and get Diana out of here, but before he could turn he was struck from behind. A heavy object came in sharp contact with his skull, rendering him unconscious before he hit the floor. 

* * * *

Diana crouched beside her mother, her breath coming in short uneven bursts, her sides aching from the effort of keeping up with the pace Jane had set. Elmira was in even worse shape, red-faced and panting. She'd torn off her veil to mop her face with it.

"Why would Gun Wa give us away?" Diana whispered.

"For money," Elmira gasped. "Why else does he do anything?"

"You know him, then?"

"I know plenty about that dishonest old reprobate," she muttered. "He's no more a Chinaman than you are. Name's W. H. Hale—an Irishman with a flair for the confidence game. Couple of years back he started wearing Chinese robes and selling aphrodisiacs to men about to take the underground passage to Holladay Street. He claims he's got rare herbs guaranteed to cure anything, but I know for a fact he just goes and picks mountain sage on the outskirts of Denver." She grinned. "Customers pay anywhere from ten dollars to a hundred for a treatment, depending on how much he thinks they're good for. Got to admire him. He takes in $10,000 a month selling amber bottles full of Gun Wa's Chinese Herbs and Vegetable Remedies."

"That doesn't sound like someone who's likely to send for the police."

"No." Elmira cursed softly. "Even if he were, he couldn't have known I was at the laundry. He'd think you went there looking for Ning."

"So Jane lied." Diana's stomach clenched. Ben had gone after the young woman and hadn't come back. "Do you trust her?" she asked her mother.

"I don't trust anyone."

"Did you ever talk to her about me?"

Elmira snorted. "She insisted on it. When she agreed to spy on Will for me, she wanted to know all sorts of things about our happy little family, including details of your elopement."

So she'd lied about that too. How many other fabrications had there been? And why?

Had there been Oil of Tansy in Jane's room under the eaves? Diana tried to remember details from her one early morning visit. She recalled the photograph of Alan Kent. The books. The trunk. The cold water Jane had splashed into her face to try and wake up.

Diana felt color leech from her cheeks as she recalled Jane's words. "As cold as Old Man's Whittud's heart," she whispered.

"What?" Elmira demanded.

"It was something Jane said. She pronounced it Whittud, but to anyone but a native of the town it would have been
Whitehead
. And Jane's eyes. Why didn't I see it before? She has Evan's eyes. Alan has the same hair, the same attitude, but Jane has his eyes. No. Not Jane. Julia. Julia Markham. That was the name in the telegram. She's not Alan Kent's sweetheart. She's his sister. She's
Evan's
sister."

"Very good, Diana." Jane stood in the doorway. She held a small, deadly-looking pistol in one hand.

"Where's Ben?" For a moment, Diana felt as if both heart and breath had stopped.

"Back there. Stay still!" The gun bobbled, then steadied. "He's alive, for the moment."

Diana exhaled a great gulp of air she hadn't been aware of holding.

"If you want to make sure he stays that way," Jane continued, "you'll do everything I say."

"All right, Jane. Or should I say Julia? We can work something out. There's no need to kill us."

"There's every need." The hand holding the gun trembled but Jane brought the other one up to steady it and kept the weapon trained on Diana and her mother.

"I guess this means your brother
did
murder Father," Diana whispered.

"No!"

"Then you did?"

"Neither of us killed him."

Diana frowned. "If that's true, then why do you need to get rid of us? Oh! It's Charlie. You believe your brother murdered
him
. Jane, I think it's admirable that you're trying to protect him, but if he didn't stab Father, why would he poison Charlie?"

"Because Charlie would have helped you frame Lawrence for old man Torrence's murder. He had to protect himself. Protect me. So how can I do any less. I have to protect him."

Diana frowned. "If Lawrence didn't murder Father, and you didn't, and Miranda and Matt are innocent, then who did kill him?"

"She did!" Jane cried, jerking the gun at Elmira. "She's the one who killed your father. She took a knife and stabbed him.
She
did that. Not us. If she hadn't taken a knife to him,
our
plan would have worked."

Diana edged closer as Jane started to sob, hoping for a chance to grab the gun.
Keep her talking
, she thought, heartened by the fact that Jane didn't seem to know it had been a letter opener, not a knife, that had killed William Torrence. She hoped that meant neither she nor her brother were murderers.

"What plan, Jane?"

"To make Torrence pay. Pay with money. We didn't want him dead."

Elmira snorted. "Let me guess. Alan Kent embezzled from Torrence Mining Company and you did the same at the hotel?"

Jane glared at her. "Yes. Why not?"

"I didn't have anything to do with Evan Spaulding's death."

"Mother, please," Diana interrupted. "Jane? Help me understand. I loved Evan, too, you know. I gave up my family, my home, to marry him. I know your mother died soon after Evan did. Was—?"

"You leave my mother out of this!" She swiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks with one hand but kept the gun in the other pointed at Diana.

"I don't think I can," Diana said. "Did she ever find out that Evan was dead? Did she care?"

"Of course she cared. She loved him! And when she was dying she made us promise we'd find out what had happened to our half brother. He kept in touch, you know, Evan. Wrote letters to Mother. And then they stopped."

"I'm sorry," Diana said. "If I'd know she existed, I'd have contacted her after he was killed. When I asked about his family, Evan always said he'd lost touch with them."

"He sent us presents when he was flush."

And ignored them the rest of the time, she'd wager, but Diana did not say that aloud. To Jane—Julia—he must have been the adored older brother.